The sun rose like it did every day, and I stood with it from my bed, determined not to act like I had last night. Whoever he was, he was lost along with my memories. And if I was not getting either of them back, I'd live without them. The way I had for what I would now call my entire life. Whatever happened before, only what Thor told me was important. I needed to move forward. There was so much more ahead than I left behind, or so I told myself.

A knock came at my door, and I let in two maids who dressed me in silk, the colours I loved on all the clothes. They fit me perfectly.

"When were these made?" I asked them.

"They're your old clothes, my lady," the young girl responded, "would you prefer we find something new?"

"No, these are perfect. Thank you."

Outside my room, Thor was waiting, a smile on his face. Tired but happy. As we should all be. Right? He extended his arm to me, which I took gladly, lost in the enormity of this single corridor, let alone the palace.

"I hope you're as hungry as I am," he said.

"I think I'm hungrier, actually."

"Good," he looked at me, "then you'll be the one eating like a bigelsnipe this morning."

"A what?" I laughed.

"Bigelsnipe! Are they not found in Midgard?"

"Sure," I joke.

He doesn't understand the sarcasm and just smiles with satisfaction. We arrived at a long table where his family and our friends sat, along with people I hadn't yet met. They all cheered when we walked in. It looked like a banquet for a wedding feast, not breakfast, but I accepted it gladly.

"How are you feeling dear?" Frigga asked me, a hand on my arm.

"I'm well, thank you. It's good to be home."

"I hope the feeling of familiarity will grow as time passes," she smiled, "and it's good to have you. With the destroyed Rainbow Bridge there will be no lack of things to do. Your help will be much needed."

"And completely at your disposal, of course," there was silence and then I said, "and I'm sorry for your loss."

"I am sorry for yours too."

"My Queen," I said, "why did I stay on Earth for so long?"

"Ah," she sighed, "well, you see, we sent a book of spells with you. It contained information that would help us find you after only ten years, but something went wrong. I suppose it is lost forever. But we knew you weren't. We looked for you, but couldn't openly tell everyone why we had sent you away."

"Why not?"

"My sons had enough rivalry without stating it openly. I did not wish to encourage it. Or the anger they would feel towards me and their father."

"Well, it was for the best, I suppose."

"I wonder sometimes if it really was."

After breakfast Thor guided me through the various halls of the palace. I memorized as much as I could, and tried creating a mental picture so if I could not find it walking I might be able to teleport. How I wished I had the ability to teleport to Earth now, if only to say goodbye to Erik, and even Jane and Darcy. I hadn't thought of the possibility of not going back and I felt guilty I had left so mindlessly.

"Your favorite place, of course," Thor said, pointing to the open double doors next to us, which revealed inside the largest library I had ever seen.

Books upon books sat on every shelf, three floors and corridors which I could see no end to. My mouth was wide open, which Thor laughed at.

"You'll come back here later, it is not really my type of place."

"Yes," I agreed, a little breathless from the amazing image before us.

We walked a while longer, until we arrived at the training grounds. Sif and the Warriors Three were already there practicing and they called for us to join them as soon as they saw us.

"Later," Thor placated them.

I found it amazing how he had not stopped smiling for a moment. I was happy for him, he had his father, his home, and his hammer back. And me, I suppose. I tried to let his joy rub off on me, but after thirty years of not finding anything, finding something halfways made me feel… defeated.

"My mother said you will train with her, to relearn the magic you have forgotten," Thor said, taking a sit on the bench facing the training grounds, and patting the spot next to him.

"She offered, I was grateful," I sat, "there is much I have to learn."

"And much you still know. She was pleasantly surprised."

"It's not magic I remembered, it's the other gifts. The once I was born with."

"Still, you used them quite well," he put his hand on my knee, "you are an amazing warrior. I think Asgard is as happy as I am to have you back."

We talked comfortably for a while about the restoration of the rainbow bridge, the other ways they could travel between realms to start working on calming the chaos of Loki's attempt at destructing Jotunheim. Thor explained what his father had just told him. That Loki was his adoptive brother, that he was a frost giant, like the ones from the planet he tried to tear down. He explained everything, answering the myriad of questions I had. We ate when we got hungry, sparred for a while and spent the entire day together, my anxiety slowly lifting. I really enjoyed his presence.

In the night, we attended a feast, which made the breakfast we had look like a toddler's meal in comparison. Drinks flowed freely and music played loudly. We danced with the soldiers, with Sif and the warriors and together when the slower songs came on. It was fun and exciting and I felt at peace that this would be my home now. It was strange in the best way.

Days turned to weeks turned to months in a blur. I slept better than I ever had, but still struggled with recurrent nightmares and insomnia some days. Every morning I would bathe, dress and break fast with either the Warriors and Sif. Then we would train, explore the city, talk. I would work with Frigga, every day understanding more and more about what I could do. In the afternoons when nothing else was going on, I would sneak off to the library for hours until Thor came and found me. Sif said I'd done the same before, usually with Loki. I couldn't picture it.

We helped with the rebuilding of the bridge, which with Heimdall in charge was extremely efficient. And at night, we all had dinner with Odin and Frigga at night, full of lively conversation and laughter.

There were moments where Thor and I would be alone after dinner, as he walked me to my room. He was busy most of the time, as was I and when we found these times we accepted them happily. We would talk about everything and he'd sometimes tell me stories from before. Usually funny ones, but once or twice he would tell the more serious ones. He talked about everything except his brother. It was like he had never existed.

And things went on like this for a long time until one day when Heimdall summoned Odin, Frigga, Thor and I. He'd been seeing everything, but most news he only mentioned casually, so if he was alarmed that meant something big had to be happening.

It was the middle of the day, I was sweaty and in my light training armor when I walked into the throne room, where Odin and Heimdall were waiting. Frigga followed behind me a few seconds later.

"What has happened?" she asked.

"It is best if we wait for Thor," Odin replied.

"Is it the bridge?" she said.

"No, the construction is still going well," Heimdall spoke in his smooth voice, "this is another matter entirely."
Thor walked in just then, his face red from training like I had been. It made his mother look between us, giving us a look which made Thor blush further as I turned away, biting my lip to hold back an embarrassed laugh.

"Now," Odin said, "tell them what you have told me."

"Very well," Heimdall nodded, "it seems Earth is in danger. The Chitauri, an ancient army is waiting for a doorway to open and let them in. An infinity stone, in the shape of the Tesseract has been on Midgard for some time now, kept by an organization in which your friend Erik works."
"S.H.I.E.L.D.?" I said.
"The men who tried to take my hammer," Thor grumbled.

"Yes," Heimdall nodded, "but they have just lost it. It should have never been left in such unprotected hands, but without the means to get to it we just assumed we would retrieve it when the Rainbow Bridge was up. Now it has been stolen by someone who means to abuse it's power."

"Who would be stupid enough to take Earth with an army that would destroy it?" I asked.

"Well, who else?" Odin chuckled, "My son. Loki."

A/N: Kind of a filler/short chapter because the time in between these two films is something I didn't really feel like building up on too much. Buuuut I'm getting to writing the next one which will kind of start touching up on the Avengers movie and hopefully it will be up by tonight. I have a lot of time this month bc all my exams were projects and I did them super early so I plan to keep updating quickly! Please do review I swear those are my biggest motivators to write faster and better! Anyway thanks for reading this.